I called Ohlins concerning Motorcycle Metal's Ohlins and my warranty concerns before buying from Motorcycle Metal. I didn't assume anything. No Problem was their answer. When I ordered my shocks, Howard was at Ohlins disassembling and modifying shocks at Ohlins. How do I know? He told me to call him there. I called Ohlins direct asked for service dept and asked for Howard and he got on the phone to talk to me. At Ohlins. My dealings with Howard both business and personal have been nothing short of brilliant. Do whatever you guys want, buy whatever from whomever, I certainly have no skin in the game. Listening to this kind of complaining that is on this thread has me glad I don't have to deal with general public, I'd be doing time.

 

I'm late to this game and certainly didn't read all 32 pages but I'll give my 2 cents.

I've purchased JRI shocks and Ohlins front fork cartridges from Howard. I bought the JRI's first. They worked well but then one started to leak. Howard gave me the contact info of the correct person at JRI and I dealt directly with JRI from there. 3 days later I got a follow up email from Howard asking how I made out. I was busy at work never got around to calling. 2 weeks after another follow up email from Howard. I've NEVER gotten that from anyone.

A month ago I bought the Ohlins cartridges for the front forks. Howard spent an hour on the phone explaining how to install them. Also spent an hour on the phone when I was inquiring about them.

Both times I got the product delivered in two days and both times received everything I needed, including tools. Never been short anything.

I think it's important to understand Howard is a hands on entrepenuer. I'm taking a guess here but he didn't want to be a salesman when he was a little boy. He's the type 'A' personality engineer that now has to wear the hat of a salesman. Because he's particular and remarkably specific with details, he cannot (or will not) delegate the sales responsibility to someone else (again my assumption).

When talking on the phone or communicating via email, there are a lot of subtle nuances that are lost in translation. I've misinterpreted many things myself because I wasn't able to talk face to face.

It's like when my Dad calls and asks me to show him how to work Windows. I tell my Dad to figure it out. Why? Not because I'm a d!ck but because it's too complex to explain. In order to learn how to operate it, he needs to figure it out himself.

Suspensions are similar. In order to fully appreciate the product and properly adjust it to your specific application YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND how it works. Suspensions require adjustments and every application is different. These aren't bolt on products with no adjustability like the stock suspension. There are dozens if not hundreds of adjustments and Howard can't tell you over the phone what to adjust it to. You need to know how it works so you can take over. I'm guessing that's why he wants you to read.

In any event, I want to buy a product from someone who knows what he's talking about, backs up his products and someone I can get a hold of almost anytime. I could care less if he makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Lastly, Howard bashes other products because quite frankly they don't compare to Ohlins. One way to say it; "Sir, the progressive suspension products are not quite up to the performance level of Ohlins" and another way to say it is "Progressive is ****". Both say the same thing and I could care less which one he chooses to say. In the end both are true.

J.

 

RHoward,

All i ever expected you to do is what you said you would do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Your problem is you promised me something you could not do. Why did you do that?

Have you ever heard " under promise... Over deliver". If you can understand that simple phase give it a try. You will be way more successful.

You and me would have never had an issue if you had just done what you said you would do. It's that simple. You should have never promised something you couldn't deliver.

Understand?

Harold

P.S. Have you forgotten to take your meds?

And guys I keep saying I will stop posting but when this guy makes a post about me as he just did I won't stop.

 

this thread has been amusing. I don't understand why its so hard to believe that different people can have different experiences with the same business.

 

What I can't understand is why the satisified customers want to post here on basically a negative thread that was started in 2011. It would be better for one of them to start a "Howard's Great" thread. Maybe he would get enough post to bury this thread and make it hard to find. You think?

Instead they continue on and help Howard may a fool of himself. He can say what he wants about me or anyone else. We are not the ones trying to sell something.

 

I had a similar experience with a forum vendor when I was building my 107 this past winter.

The first conservation went great they were going to bore the cylinders, do the heads and dyno in the spring; the next conversation to schedule the work and timing was a complete 180 degree difference in attitude, kind of rude and condescending.......here let me dig up the thread I made about it.................oh wait there isn't one, I simply went elsewhere to have the work done.

Life is too short to worry about getting revenge for being butt-hurt.

 

From my standpoint, its not a matter of getting revenge...just trying to make others that haven't had this experience as yet, aware that this is the way it could go, so beware...

Very unprofessional coming on here and badmouthing customers and potential customers...when your unprofessional on a public forum, this is the result!

 

Actually that's part of the point I'm trying to make.

Up until recently I ran my own business. And as hard as I tried, sometimes, because I was basically a one man show (at the end because I just gave up on finding reliable help that cared about quality), I had to disappoint people on occasion. Sometimes it was scheduling issues. Sometimes I just plain made a mistake because I was spread too thin. And sometimes I just plain made a mistake because I'm human. And when I did make a mistake, I was quick to make it right and very apologetic. Fortunately, that didn't happen often.

On rare occasions my responses to customers was not ideal because I was stressed from all of the above. Those responses were pretty much always in response to someone insulting my work when I knew damn well I had done it not only well, but perfectly. When I first started the business, I would greet such accusations with diplomacy and sort it out. But after a number of years, it got very old, and hence my less than diplomatic responses to things I considered an insult. I could probably count those instances on both hands so it wasn't ever present, but the impression was lasting and my tolerance for such insults became greatly reduced with each instance.

So I factor that when dealing with smaller outfits. And I also know how I would feel if my few instances of customer dissatisfaction were broadcast in the venue in which I grew my business. What's the saying - Whenever I do something right, nobody seems to remember. But when I do something wrong, no one can ever seem to forget.. That's what it is to be in business. So it's easy to say how unprofessional it is to respond as Howard has. But until you are in his shoes, you can't know what it's like dealing with ******** like us.

And that's why I feel threads like these are a disservice to, not only the vendor, but someone looking to get a great product. I read these kinds of threads before buying from Howard. All I'm saying is I'm glad I took them with a grain of salt because I found my transaction to be exemplary.

 

I bought a pair of Ohlin 3~3 shocks from Howard in January.
He was busy when I called to order them, I could hear people talking to him and he would say hold on a sec. once in awhile through our phone conversation, but he was polite to me and took time to help me even though he was clearly busy as hell.

I had plenty of time to read the instructions he sent along with the shocks, I think I put them on my bike in April, my garage isn't heated so I waited for a nice day.

The sag was almost spot on out of the box, so I didn't start changing anything until I put some miles on the shocks.

I have about 2000 miles on them now, I adjusted the sag about a week ago and they feel great, I still tinker with the rebound adjustment some just to see if there is a sweeter sweet spot.

Anyway what I'm trying to say is, my experience with Howard was good, a very busy but nice helpful guy, a fantastic product, easy to follow installation instructions.

Just my thoughts.
Have a nice day everyone.